2023-04-30 22:56:21
Venezuelans maintain the demand to receive a salary that allows them to cover their basic needs, so expectations regarding this issue have been even more present as May 1, Labor Day, approaches, in which the government usually decrees increases.
Through social networks, users commented that without changes in the country’s economic policies “any increase becomes water in the hands”, so there is little good that they can expect.
On the contrary, they indicated that the salary adjustment will be diluted “as it has been doing for years”, between lack of production and the constant increase in the products of the basic basket.
Ronald Balza, economist, commented to scoop that given the lack of budgetary information offered by the national government, it is unknown “how much of the budget is allocated to salaries and how many public employees there are” in the country.
In this sense, he assured that any decision made by the national Executive is “arbitrary”, such as having maintained the salary of 130 bolivars for more than a year and even the one that may be announced on May 1.
“And you cannot tell the workers that they were not increased more because there was no money, because there is no way to prove what they are using it for,” he said regarding the reasons why it is not possible to have “a good expectation substantiated”.
Regarding the requests of the workers that the salary be indexed to the dollar, Balza recalled that even prices in dollars also increase, so said indexation is “not desirable”.
He explained that the price of the dollar depends on “what the government does with the bolivars it spends”, which makes the request a danger of also being “trapped” in a salary that does not preserve its purchasing power.
In this way, he stressed that the energy that is used by workers to calculate how many dollars would allow them to access the basic basket, might be used to ask the national government to publish figures and budgets.
The economist recalled that the minimum wage is mainly for public employees and pensioners, so demanding a salary in dollars “when the price of everything depends on what the government does is to remain tied to something that it can handle arbitrarily.”
Necessary measures for a change
Balza pointed out that wages depend on production, which in turn depends on investment and planning, so one of the main measures necessary to achieve economic improvements in the country is the publication of official information.
“The first thing is to have public information that is reliable, complete, timely and credible. The second thing is that when a government makes its expenses, these must have a knowable destination and the result must be evaluated because if the resources are not lost, it is due to corruption, waste, ”he said.
In this sense, he stated that “without information it is very difficult for there to be investment, or for there to be stability.”
It should be noted that, for this Monday, May 1, the Guyanese workers have agreed to gather at the Esquina Caliente, in Unare and march to the Atlantic Mall to protest for various reasons. One of them, in rejection of a current minimum wage of 130 bolivars.
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